BENGALURU: The omission of several long-time residents, including Dr Sharath Chandra, who was secretary in charge of science and technology in the Karnataka government, from the draft electoral rolls has raised questions over the SIR. Dr Chandra, who also served as former Karnataka State Pollution Control Board chairman and is a resident of Amarjyothi Layout, Cholanagar, Hebbal, said his name, despite figuring in the 2002 electoral rolls, is now shown as “No Mapping”.“I have downloaded the 2002 voter list from the website, and my name is clearly there.
I provided all the required details, including the constituency, booth number, part number and serial number. Yet the draft list shows ‘No Mapping’,” said Dr Chandra, who is in his seventies. He said the problem is not only with him but several residents in the locality too have been affected. He has since received a notice asking him to produce any one of 11 specified documents to establish his eligibility as a voter.
“What is disturbing is that the notice warns that giving false information is punishable. If a voter is accused of providing false information, why should the officer responsible for showing an existing voter as ‘non-existent’ not be held accountable for wrong information and harassment,”he asked.
His wife, Dr Premalatha, a former director of the Indira Gandhi Institute of Child Health, said she too is a regular voter in the area.“I have voted since 2002. I filled up the SIR form, but my name does not figure in the new draft voter list,” she said.
Another resident Dr SV Hegde, a former professor at the University of Agricultural Sciences who has been staying in the locality for 35 years, said he was surprised that his name is missing from the draft rolls. “I am surprised that they left my name out.
Many of my neighbours’ names too are not on the list,” he added.
He suspects that the omission could be because they failed to provide booth details during verification. “I wonder who will remember the booth number from 23 years ago? I have raised the issue with the BLO,” he said. The electoral history of the area itself has added to the confusion, he said. “Our constituency was earlier Hebbal, then it moved to Yelahanka and now it is back to Hebbal again.
”Dr Chandra said, “I always used to say that the most important right I have is the right to exercise my franchise. Now they have taken it away.” He recalled an incident from his younger days when he was registered as a voter in Mysuru and discovered that somebody else had attempted to cast a vote in his name. “I cast a ‘challenge vote.’ Those days you could cast a challenge vote if you found that someone had cast your vote in proxy,” he recalled.
The experiences of the three residents raise questions about how electoral databases are being reconciled with older rolls.
The process of issuing notices and conducting hearings is on as part of the second phase of of electoral rolls. However, 36,49,373 notices are yet to be delivered to the people, according to the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Karnataka. People in Hassan and Chitradurga districts have received the least number of notices at 1.25% and 1.70%, respectively. Bengaluru also ranks low in the list. It is 7.26% in BBMP’s Central district where 31,159 notices have been delivered, followed by Bangalore Urban district 4.89% (46,271 notices), BBMP South district 4.05% and BBMP North district 13.15%. As per data, 43,81,143 electors have been listed for issue of notices under the anomaly/logical discrepancy and no-mapping categories. Of them, 7,31,770 notices have been issued so far. In Bengaluru’s BBMP Central district, notices have been issued to 4,29,310 people. In Bangalore Urban 9,45,720, BBMP North 6,13,266 and BBMP South 4,18,043 notices have been issued. Hearings will continue till October 12 by electoral registration officers (EROs) and assistant EROs.